Russia To Sign 10-Year Contracts With Young Players To Stop Federation Changes

Andrey Filatov, president of the Russian Chess Federation, announced on Friday that they intend to sign 10-year contracts with promising young players to prevent them from leaving the country.

With no signs of the war in Ukraine ending, Russian Chess has continued to lose players in the last few months. Chess.com has reported the transfers of a dozen players who have changed federations, most recently GM Nikita Vitiugov and GM Sanan Sjugirov who now play for England and Hungary respectively.

The independent news site Kholod reported in July that more than 200 Russian athletes have changed their nationality in order to continue competing in international events. According to the site, chess players represent the largest group with 141 players changing flags, a number that has increased significantly since then.

Filatov anticipates that the 10-year contracts will help Russia combat the loss of their best and most promising players. In addition, on Friday he warned the state-run news agency Tass: "If an athlete decides to change the country, he will have to return all the costs that investors incurred in his development and promotion." 

Filatov confirms that GM Andrey Esipenko, the 21-year-old who is currently 53rd in the world rankings, signed such a deal with the Russian Chess Federation this summer.

The move comes just a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin during a speech called for the Ministry of Sports to deal with what he referred to as "hockey businessmen" who tempt Russian hockey players and other athletes to move abroad and compete for other nations.

Russia's Minister of Sport, Oleg Matytsin, has addressed Putin's demand and said that they intend to introduce bills that will prevent that from happening.

“Let’s see how we can protect the interests of Russian hockey, athletes, coaches, and sports schools in order to limit the departure of talented athletes,” he is quoted by Generico.ru.

In February FIDE introduced a new policy that allows Russian chess players to start representing a new European chess federation immediately without restrictions. The change came as the Russian Chess Federation announced it would leave the European Chess Union and join Asia. The move was made official in March and ECU called it a "shameful day for chess."

Filatov addressed the fact that Russia is banned from taking part in international team competitions, which has led to a "lack of workload for the team coaches."

"We have assigned the most talented guys to the six leading coaches of the Russian national teams—a total of 14 young, promising chess players. Moreover, personal trainers continue to work with them," Filatov told Tass.

It is unclear whether other players have signed a similar contract as Esipenko, but a likely target could be the nation's other big prospect, 17-year-old GM Volodar Murzin, who is ranked 13th among the world's top juniors.

[Update October 23: Ekaterina Murzin, mother of Volodar, says her son has no intentions of signing a contract with the Russian Chess Federation. He is currently training privately with GM Mihail Kobalia]